SEATTLE — Vice President Joe Biden met with researchers at Seattle’s Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center during his visit to Seattle on March 21. The center describes the vice president’s visit as part of a listening tour to promote cancer research.

Cancer is the leading cause of death among Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders, even though overall cancer incidence and death rates in these groups are lower than among white Americans, a new American Cancer Society study finds.

There will be about 57,740 new cancer cases and nearly 17,000 cancer deaths among Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders in 2016.

President Barack Obama has proposed spending $1 billion for a new initiative to cure cancer. Since the president’s announcement during his State of the Union address in January, Biden has been visiting cancer researchers and advocates.

The vice president’s son, Beau, died of brain cancer last year at the age of 46. Biden says his work fighting cancer will include clearing bureaucratic hurdles.